medicine

Published on Scientific American on October 30, 2017. (BTW: the pic is of me with Everett! Everett was 1.5 wks old and we wandered out to Bishop’s Apple Orchard.) As a new father, I’ve learned that the U.S. ranks at the very bottom of industrialized nations for paid parental leave. Denmark offers a year. Italy offers five months. France offers 16 weeks;...

Published online at Scientific American on September 28, 2017. “Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated.” Rosalind Franklin Recently, The Atlantic senior editor James Hamblin discussed how nearly all major physician organizations have spoken out publicly against the Senate’s Graham–Cassidy health care bill. In fact, throughout this year’s string of health care reform bills these physician organizations have encouraged their members...

If you’re displaying erratic behavior that seems irrational to others, part of the explanation could be plain old sleep deprivation Originally published on Scientific American MIND’s Guest Blog on October 17, 2016. “You know, I’m not a big sleeper,” Donald Trump said last November. “I like three hours, four hours, I toss, I turn, I beep-de-beep, I want to find out...

Originally published on Scientific American’s MIND blog on December 16, 2016. As a third year medical student I rotated through a sleep clinic. My job was to administer the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, a tool used to screen patients for sleep disorders. At the end of the day, I took the questionnaire myself and was shocked when I scored worse than...